UN rights chief blasts Sri Lankan attacks on probe

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The United Nations' human rights chief has criticized Sri Lanka's government for attacking the integrity of his office's probe into alleged war crimes during the country's civil war.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein accused the government of conducting a campaign of "distortion and disinformation" about the investigation, and of attempting to prevent witnesses from submitting evidence. He called the government's actions an affront to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Sri Lanka has refused to cooperate with the probe into allegations of abuses by government soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels in the final period of the country's civil war in 2009.

Hussein's predecessor appointed a three-member panel in June to look into the allegations.